Posted by Laura Vestanen on 10/21/07 2:44pm
Msg #217557

OT - Grand Central phone service by Google. Help please

In my on-going quest to make my phone bill as low as possible, I am exploring Google's new phone service Grand Central.
I am having trouble understanding how it can help me.

Do you use it? Can you explain the salient benefits?

Thanks!!!

Reply by Charles_Ca on 10/21/07 5:37pm
Msg #217565

Hi Laura:

I use Viatalk whichis a VoIP system. I love mine, my phone bill is $16 a month plus they have to bill $2.50 a month because the governement requires all phone numbers to contribute to the 911 system. That is all it costs me per line. I went to this system becuase I set up a call center (16 lines) and the phone company was absolutely outrageous, since I use Hughes net satellite internet at my office there are no other charges for the phone service, just the $16/mo/line. The calling is unlimited within the US and foreign calls are very minimal (Guadalajara, MX and Munich, Germany cost 4cents a minute). I take my phone an I can plug it in anywhere I have a broadband connection and there is a feature that you can use your phone with your laptop so that if you are at a Wi-Fi hot spot you have a phone. The last time I talked to Andy he also is on VoIP and I believe now is using ViaTalk. If I can give you any more information e-mail me, I'll be glad to discuss it with you.

The greatest benefits are obvioulsy the cost and the portability. I use call capture and few other features that may or may not be of value to you.

Reply by Philip Johnson on 10/21/07 8:24pm
Msg #217580

Just keep in mind Sunrocket and how they just ceased being

at midnight one Sunday and those folks were out.

Reply by Charles_Ca on 10/21/07 9:15pm
Msg #217586

Aren't you just a bright ray of sunshine, do you keep your

money in a jar in the back yard becasue a bank or two went under in 1929? Sure, it can happen, then again it may not and if you chose carefully you go with the odds. What the heck, living is just beating the odds.

Reply by Philip Johnson on 10/22/07 10:05am
Msg #217629

No, but I do have a healthy distrust of

startups that lure you in with a discounted year of service and close the doors in a couple of months. I use Qwest, you remember one of the baby bells who has been in business for a few more years than Vonage,Sunrocket, etc. I'd love to continue, but I'm off to the annual Luddite convention and I hate to be late.

Reply by Frenchie/TN on 10/22/07 11:16am
Msg #217650

Re: No, but I do have a healthy distrust of

Okay, you made me look up luddite!! I love new words or rediscovering old ones that don't get used much. This is a very erudite board. Thanks.

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/22/07 11:59am
Msg #217656

Re: No, but I do have a healthy distrust of

Ah the Luddites! I was surprised when I first heard the Luddites mentioned over here. One of the "battles" was close to my home town. (less than 5 miles away).
Of course it was over 100 years before my time.

Reply by Philip Johnson on 10/22/07 2:10pm
Msg #217675

So the Luddites were homeboys of yours?

Those crazy Englishmen, imagine having the nerve to stand in front of the inevitable? I say good for them and all of those who occasionally think like them. Sometimes having the newest, bestest thing ain't always the bestest for us.

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 10/22/07 2:29pm
Msg #217677

Re: So the Luddites were homeboys of yours?

Not exactly "homeboys". But one of the battles was fought in Middleton.
Ned Ludd (if he really existed) was allegedly from Leicestershire.
Middleton is a small town (or it used to be a "small" town) just outside my home town of Rochdale. The sabotaging of the machines was a capital crime. and Lord Byron of Rochdale was a defender of the Luddites and opposed the legislation that made it a capital crime.

Reply by MikeC/NY on 10/21/07 8:03pm
Msg #217578

It's not going to help you lower your phone bills

The primary purpose of Grand Central is to give you a single phone number (which they give you for free) that will forward to all of your phones (which you still have to pay for).

You can do some neat things like pick up the call on your cell and switch to your landline in the middle of the conversation if you want. There are other bells and whistles, some of which are free and some you have to pay for, but the main point of the service is phone number portability - you get one number, supposedly forever, that will follow you to any phone you want. You still need to buy those phone services from someone else.

Reply by Laura Vestanen on 10/22/07 9:14am
Msg #217621

Re: It's not going to help you lower your phone bills

Thanks for the tips.

The one free permanent number is what is most appealing.

Sunrocket's demise is one appeal for getting a permanent number. I would hate to lose my phone number overnight - especially if I had worked hard to plaster it all over the internet.

What is your personal opinion on the "forever" part?

Reply by Dave_CA on 10/22/07 9:27am
Msg #217624

Grand Central

I have just started testing this out. My main interest is to have my Grand Central # ring on BOTH my cell and office phone simultaneously because sometimes my cell just does not ring in the house. That works.
I'm still checking out some of the other bells & whistles.

As to "forever"... I had a "lifetime membership" in the Pan Am clipper club which was great. They just did not explain the lifetime was theirs not mine.

Having said that I don't expect Goggle will be going away anytime soon.
Of course I didn't expect Pan Am to go away either.

Reply by MikeC/NY on 10/22/07 1:02pm
Msg #217663

Re: It's not going to help you lower your phone bills

<< What is your personal opinion on the "forever" part? >>

Until they were acquired by Google I was a bit skeptical about that part, because I was unsure about their funding and their business plan. Now I think their "forever" is going to be more than just a couple of years.